Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sadly, it has come to our attention that an entry to the Artisanal
contest that won a merit award in January was plagiarised. The offending
player has been permanently shrubbed.

Achaea is a rather unique world, but there are elements in it that might
be found in other fantasy. While it may be tempting to just find a
random picture of a dwarf and submit it as "A Dwarf in Blackrock", it
probably will not win anything, because it's not clearly Achaean.

Every once in a while, though, something somewhat generic that was
submitted by a player who thought they were very clever wins something.
More often than not, we get an email or a message from another keen-eyed
player informing us of exactly where it was stolen from.

Achaea is filled with a lot of people who appreciate fantasy art, and
many of them have accounts on (or at least peruse) Elfwood and
DeviantArt, and any of the other excellent collections of fantasy art
out there. You may think that the picture of the angel that you claim to
be an Atavian priest has never been seen by anybody, but there's a very
good chance that someone is going to call you out, and you will lose
your character forever.

It should go without saying that checking for Bardic plagiarism is even
easier for us, and it would be supremely foolish to even consider that
one.

If you don't have much artistic skill, try your hand at the Bardic
contest. Don't sink down to such a sad level as to steal other people's
work. We will find out, and you will lose your character permanently.

Penned by My hand on the 13th of Aeguary, in the year 505 AF.